


Reunion

by miss_aligned



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Mass Effect 2, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-28
Updated: 2016-05-28
Packaged: 2018-07-10 17:34:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6998041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_aligned/pseuds/miss_aligned
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A confused and bewildered Shepard finds herself in the company of an old friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reunion

“You alright there, Skipper?”

Shepard jumped at the sound. It was all too familiar and yet one that she hadn’t heard in a long, long time. Even over her sudden coughing fit, she acknowledged and appreciated that voice.

“Ash! It’s good to see you,” Shepard said as a broad smile swept across her face. Her friend stooped to help her to her feet. “Ah. Thanks. How are you?”

“I’m good. Really good. Thanks for asking,” Ashley replied with a little grin of her own. “Having a rough day, I take it?”

“Hmm, yeah…” To be honest, Shepard wasn’t sure how she’d managed to fall in the first place. She wondered if she’d taken a blow to the head since everything seemed so terribly fuzzy. For all intents and purposes, however, she was feeling perfectly fine.

When she glanced around, she realized where they were. Earth loomed brightly above, and the sight of it made her heart ache. She didn’t get to see or appreciate it nearly often enough.

“Quite the view, huh?” Ashley took a moment to admire the beautiful blue gem hanging delicately in a black abyss.

“The best.” Shepard quickly pivoted to get a better look at the lunar surface upon which they stood. “The last time I was here, I had to shut down a rogue VI. Wild.”

“Well, you shut it down, right?” Ashley responded, an amused tone to her voice. “I don’t think we’ll have to worry about it now.”

“I suppose not.” Shepard couldn’t quite remember how she’d gotten here, but she knew she’d been meaning to speak to the Gunnery Chief. “I’ve missed you, Ash.”

“I know,” she quietly responded, her gaze flicking from Earth to the Commander. “It’s been a while.”

“Yeah it has. I wanted to apologize. I never wanted to leave you behind,” Shepard began, trying to recall the words she often spoke into the darkness when she was thinking of Ashley.

“Don’t apologize. Everything turned out fine. I made the choice for myself long before you had the chance. There’s no need to beat yourself up over it.” Ashley placed a reassuring hand on Shepard’s shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze.

Just hearing those words made Shepard feel a thousand times better about the situation. She’d relived the operations on Virmire plenty of times, always wondering if she’d been able to do more, if she could have saved both of her comrades instead of just one. Knowing that Ashley wasn’t angry, resentful, or regretful of how things turned out lifted an unseen weight from the Commander’s shoulders.

“I’d love it if you could join the Normandy again, Ash.”

“Kinda hard to join a ship that no longer exists, isn’t it?”

“What?” Shepard’s brow furrowed as she tried to piece together the meaning of the question. Somehow she knew it had something to do with the hazy condition of her mind. How had she gotten here? What had she been doing? How would Ashley know the condition of her ship?

“It was hard for me to understand, too, at first. My grandfather was the one to meet me. He said I made him and the entire family proud,” Ashley said as she turned her gaze back to Earth, a dreamy glint in her eye.

“Wait, are you saying I’m–”

“Come on, Skipper. Didn’t you wonder how you are suddenly able to talk to me? I didn’t survive Virmire. _You_ didn’t survive the destruction of the Normandy. I gotta say, though, I’m pretty excited to be the one to meet the infamous Commander Shepard when the time came.”

Shock swept across the Commander’s features as all in a moment, she remembered everything that had been going on before she found herself here. She could see the explosions, hear the screams, feel the concussive force as her ship’s hull was blown apart and she was thrown into open space. She remembered why she’d been coughing. She’d suffocated. “Oh my god…”

“It’s okay, Skipper. It happens to everyone eventually. I’d say you’d had more close calls than most, don’t you think?” The upbeat tone of her voice as she said it made Shepard feel a little better about her untimely death. She wasn’t sure how she envisioned the end, but somehow this wasn’t it.

“Kaidan…” Shepard was suddenly horrified about the aftermath of her death for those closest to her.

“He’ll be okay. Eventually. You two were sickening, by the way. Too sweet. Ugh.”

Shepard buried her face in her hands. As she reviewed those final moments in her mind, she knew he was going to be wracked with guilt over what happened. He’d blame himself for her death.

“He’s stronger than he looks, you know. And he’s a marine, so he already looks pretty strong. It’s going to hurt for a while, but he’ll get through it. He knows you don’t want him wallowing in misery or anything.” She paused and hummed with thought, causing Shepard to drop her hands and glance in Ashley’s direction. “I think we’re going to have to postpone our little chat, actually.”

“What do you mean?” Shepard asked, unable to interpret the distant look in Ashley’s eyes.

“I’ll see you around, Skipper.” Ashley turned to walk away. After taking a few steps, she turned her head and called out over her shoulder. “Hey, when you see LT… go easy on him, okay?”

“Ash, I don’t understand–” Shepard said, but Ashley’s familiar silhouette was swallowed in a bright white flash that quickly consumed the entirety of her vision.

__________

“There. On the monitor. Something’s wrong.”

“She’s reacting to outside stimuli. Showing an awareness of her surroundings. Oh my god, Miranda. I think she’s waking up.”


End file.
